_To work hard, live hard,
die hard, and go to hell after all_, would be hard indeed.
Yet a sailor's life is at best but a mixture of a little good with much
evil, and a little pleasure with much pain. The beautiful is linked with
the revolting, the sublime with the common-place, and the solemn with
the ludicrous.
We had hardly returned on board with our sad report, before an auction
was held of the poor man's clothes. The captain had first, however,
called all hands aft, and asked them if they were satisfied that
everything had been done to save the man, and if they thought there was
any use in remaining there longer. The crew all said that it was in
vain, for the man did not know how to swim, and was very heavily
dressed. So we then filled away and kept her off to her course.
* * * * *
=_Evert A. Duyckinck, 1816--._= (Manual, p. 502.)
Essay from "Arcturus."
=_229._= NEWSPAPERS.
No one, it has been said, ever takes up a newspaper without interest, or
lays it down without regret. There is a deeper truth in this observation
than at first thought strikes the mind; it is not the casual
disappointment at the loss of fine writing, or the absence of particular
topics of news, or the variety of subjects that dispel all deep-settled
reflection; but a newspaper is in some measure a picture of human life,
and we can no more read its various paragraphs with pleasure, than
we can look back upon the events of any single day with, unmingled
satisfaction.
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